Many big corporations and companies use organisational surveys as a tool to obtain feedback from employees on how best management within an organisation can improve overall working conditions. The surveys often comprise a list of questions to be filled by all employees. The questions also vary, depending on the issues which management feels are particularly pertinent at a certain time.
Asking employees to take substantial time to complete surveys without giving them feedback or addressing whatever concerns that arise out of the studies is a violation of their trust from management to address their concerns and value the time they have taken to respond to a survey - you might as well not undertake these surveys in the first place.
Getting staff to participate in organisational surveys could prove to be a daunting task for the human resources department. More often than not, staff participation in these surveys is not mandatory.
The company's leadership should therefore play an active role by leading from the front. If senior members of staff, including the chief executive, take an active role in driving the process, it goes a long way towards improving and re-inforcing staff enthusiasm. Staff members are more likely to buy into the programme if they can see that it is not just an HR initiative.
The usefulnnes of organisational surveys is largely influenced by the degree of positive responses elicited by the survey. The greater the response, the more reflective the results are, of the total work population and hence will be taken seriously by senior leadership.
However, companies should keep note that these surveys should be undertaken periodically, at least annually, to allow for comparison and accurate benchmarking.
At the end of the day, organisational surveys are really about celebrating what your firm is doing well, and then to use the positive energy from that, to fix areas that may be of concern to employees.
The challenge for organisations is that workforce needs are changing so rapidly, that as one fixes one thing another area is of concern to a new group. Creating the right work environment is an ongoing journey and unfortunately not a perfect end destination which is ever entirely reached.
